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Let’s Talk About The Percy Jackson Series

I’ve loved the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series for years and I’ve just recently finished rereading them and really wanted to write a blog post. I decided to write a post on the series as a whole rather than book reviews, as I felt like a more chatty approach would be better. Honestly, I just wanted to recommend these and tell you the reasons I fell in love with the series!

Talking about the whole series is easier and more interesting as I can speak more in-depth about it rather than being restricted to just one book. I also plan to start reading the Heroes of Olympus series Rick Riordan released. These books are less focused on Percy and more on other characters – both old and new – so I wanted to refresh my memory and have a little post to vent my feelings.

In case you haven’t come across the series before, it’s about Percy who finds out at age 12 that he is a demigod – half mortal, half God. The series draws from Greek mythology and is genuinely really informative about it! Honestly, it explains many myths in such a simple and fun way that you can’t help but fall in love with them. I was always slightly interested in the myths but it just got even better is as I got older as I researched more and more about Greek mythology and adore it even more now.

I read the first Percy Jackson book when I was probably about 12 or 13. My younger brother was a big fan and I wanted to read anything I could get my hands on when I was younger so I borrowed them. I remember absolutely falling in love pretty much straight away, the main reason for this being the characters. I adored Percy, Annabeth and Grover (and still do) and so many of the smaller characters too.

The books are aimed at a younger audience and the style of writing can be quite childish (not in an insulting way against Riordan, I just mean that it is clearly aimed at children!) A lot of this is due to the fact it is written in first person from Percy’s point of view. The first book, The Lightning Thief, is set when Percy is 12 and they continue as the Harry Potter books do: a book for each year of the protagonist’s life. They are written how he thinks and speaks which obviously will be quite young as he is!

A brilliant thing about the series is the fact that all the demigods struggle with ADHD and dyslexia, two things which (in what I have read anyway) don’t seem to often be represented in popular fiction. It is such a great aspect as it gives readers with ADHD or dyslexia (especially the target audience of children) characters to identify with as well as giving an understanding to those who aren’t familiar. Representation of all kinds is very important to me and I think it it a vital aspect of fiction as the lack of representation can be quite damaging for many parts of your identity.

Character development is such a wonderful element to this series! Honestly, to see all characters – main and background – progress and change and grow up is so fun and lovely, especially Clarisse! I would talk more about the characters but I plan to do some specific character posts for ones like Annabeth (who is one of my all time favourite characters ever) so I don’t want to reveal too much.

This post has just been a big rambling of thoughts and anecdotes but honestly if you have been debating reading the Percy Jackson series I really do recommend it. They’re an easy read, they have exciting adventures and you can learn about Greek mythology! There are also tons of different kinds of characters and figuring out your favourite cabin (or favourite Greek God) is really fun to do. If anyone is interested, I’m definitely a fan of Apollo.

Let me know if you’ve read them or if you plan on doing and comment with your opinions; I’m always up for chatting Percy Jackson!